


stargazers

by branwyns



Series: rosebird [5]
Category: RWBY
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Beacon Ball, Confessions, Dancing, Embarrassed Raven, F/F, First Kiss, Fluff, Jealousy, Mother AU, Nonbinary Ozpin, Ozpin Adopted Raven and Qrow, Raven-Ruby Bonding, Rosebird Week, Rosebird Week 2019, Summer-Yang Bonding, Tai and Summer are great friends, The Branwen Tribe - Freeform, They're kids in chapter 7, Willow/Sienna in second chapter, first encounter
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-12
Updated: 2019-08-18
Packaged: 2020-08-19 16:20:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 3,141
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20212693
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/branwyns/pseuds/branwyns
Summary: Rosebird Week 2019 Prompt Fills!





	1. First Encounter

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> First Encounter - Raven and Summer first meet on the airship to Beacon.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> fun fact, the wip title of this chapter is "real sexy of us to be on this airship at the same time ;)"

Raven tucked Qrow further into the corner of the airship they’d claimed for themselves and glared at the other students who dared come close. Most of them avoided Raven and Qrow after that, but one girl didn’t.

Raven stared at her with as much hostility as she could muster, but the girl just smiled at her and waved at Qrow. Qrow waved back shyly and Raven felt the prickling heat of a blush in her ears. She very deliberately stepped in front of Qrow and attempted to ignore her for the rest of the flight.

No such luck for her, because about five minutes after Raven decided to ignore her the girl appeared in front of her with a large smile.

“Hello!” she said. “I’m Summer Rose!” she stuck her hand out in front of her. Raven stared at it and tried to radiate as many  _ fuck off  _ vibes as possible. After a moment the girl -- Summer’s -- hand dropped. She shuffled her feet a little before gesturing to the blond boy she pulled over with her. “This is Taiyang Xiao Long!” 

Taiyang gave Raven a smile and waved to Qrow peering over her shoulder. Raven stayed silent until Qrow poked her in the back and hissed “ _ Rae. _ ”

She huffed. “Raven and Qrow.” Qrow poked her again. “Branwen.” Summer beamed at them.

“Well, Raven and Qrow Branwen, let’s be friends!” she said. Taiyang tossed his arm over her shoulders. Qrow shifted out from behind Raven and she knew he was giving them that shy smile that he gave to all the pretty boys who smiled at him in camp.

“Yeah!” Taiyang said. “Let’s try to get on the same team, too.” Raven glanced back at Qrow.

“Sure,” she said. Qrow smiled at her and then at Summer and Taiyang. Raven turned her attention back to the other two and found Summer staring at her with a softer smile than the one she gave Qrow. Raven felt the heat of a blush rising in her face again. 

Qrow talked excitedly with Summer and Taiyang for the rest of the flight and Raven spent it with her heart jumping in her chest every time Summer looked her way.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> its physically impossible for me to write beacon era STRQ without raven being Protective Older Sister towards qrow


	2. First Kiss/First Date

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Summer and her friends are at a club for New Year's when Willow's girlfriend brings some interesting strangers....

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I went with "First Kiss" for this one!

****

Summer was pleasantly buzzed, tucked up under Tai’s arm while he flirted with the bartender. She messed with the sleeves of Tai’s hoodie until their drinks were passed over to them and they were able to start looking for a table.

“I love New Years!” she yelled into his ear. She sipped her drink, something too-sweet with probably more alcohol in it than was in Tai’s last three. He laughed brightly.

“Me too! Let’s find Kali and Willow and Ghira!” Summer nodded and tucked herself more snuggly against her best friend’s side. 

“Sum! Tai-Tai! Over here!” a familiar voice called from somewhere nearby. Summer and Tai swung around trying to find Kali’s dark hair in the dark club. They finally found their friends by the flashing of Kali’s gold bracelets and Willow’s white hair that was almost blue under the blacklights. They picked their way over to the table where they collapsed into the booth.

“Where’s Sienna?” Summer asked Willow, leaning in close and raising her voice to be heard over the music.

“She’ll be here soon, she’s bringing some friends!” Willow shouted back. Willow looked like she was nursing a glass of plain red wine (did they even sell that here or did Willow smuggle it in, Summer wondered) while she waited for her girlfriend to show. Kali jumped up again and started waving wildly. The rest of them looked to the area she was gesturing at and spotted Sienna and two people they didn’t recognize. Summer’s eyes locked onto the unfamiliar woman and her heart pounded appreciatively. The trio finally made it to the table and Sienna began introductions.

“Raven and Qrow, this is Kali and Ghira, Summer and Tai, and my girlfriend Willow. Guys, these are the Branwens.” Summer continued to stare at Raven, taking note of her strong arms and imposing stature along with her mass of dark, curly hair. Raven noticed her staring and smirked at her.

“Summer-and-Tai or just Summer and Tai?” she asked. Summer’s lips curled into a smile and she felt her face heat up a little.

“The second one, we’re not, like, together,” she replied. Raven settled down next to her.

“In that case, can I buy you a drink, Summer?” Summer felt warm all over and whether it was from the alcohol or this beautiful stranger she didn't know.

“Sure,” she said and she got up to follow Raven to the bar. She twisted to look over her shoulder and Tai gave her a thumbs up.

By the time they got their drinks and began to make their way back to the table, everyone began gathering towards the middle of the dance floor.

“Alright everybody, it’s 11:59, so you better grab who you wanna smooch because the countdown is starting soon!” the DJ yelled. The countdown began, people shouting along with the DJ and Summer glanced up at Raven. Raven was looking back at her with an intense, serious expression.

_ 5 _

Summer shifted closer to Raven and Raven took both of their glasses and sat them down.

_ 4 _

Summer fiddled with the sleeves of her hoodie again.

_ 3 _

Raven looked like she had no clue what to do.

_ 2 _

Summer took a deep breath…

_ 1 _

She grabbed Raven’s collar and pulled her down into a kiss. Cheering and cries of  _ Happy New Year! _ broke out all over the club. Summer was busy trying to catalogue exactly how Raven’s mouth felt against hers. Raven’s hands were on Summer’s hips and Summer slowly slid hers from Raven’s collar to her hair.

They broke apart and Summer felt flushed all over. “H-happy New Ye-year,” she stammered, breathing hard through her nose. Raven’s hands were still on her hips.

“Happy New Year,” she replied.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The wip title for this one was "haha you come here often wink wonk"


	3. Mother AU

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Summer and Raven bond with their daughters

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wasn't sure what to do for this at first but then I was like "Oh fuck! Summer and Yang bonding and Ruby and Raven bonding!"

__ __

“Yang!” Summer called from the kitchen. She had sent Raven and Ruby out earlier for groceries and wanted to surprise Yang with cookie making. 

“Yeah, Mama?” Yang said from the doorway. Summer looked over her shoulder and smiled at her older daughter. She gestured to the ingredients in front of her.

“I wanted to know if you’d like to help me make cookies for dessert to surprise your Mom and sister!” Yang lit up, immediately tying her hair back with one of the dozens of hair elastics she kept on the wrist of her prosthetic.

“Did you grab the extra thing of chocolate chips? You know Mom and Ruby love extra chocolate chips,” Yang said as she washed her hands. Summer laughed.

“Of course I grabbed extra chocolate chips, you think this is my first time making cookies?” she asked. Yang laughed and bumped her shoulder against Summer’s. 

“What do you think Mom and Ruby are up to?” she asked. Summer hummed.

“Hopefully actually getting the groceries,” she said.

~~~~

“I don’t wanna,” Ruby said, sinking down in the front seat. Raven sighed.

“I don’t either, kiddo, but the Boss said we have to.” Ruby stuck her tongue out and Raven took a deep breath and counted to ten. Ruby had, unfortunately, hit the ‘grumpy' phase of teenagerdom and Raven had no clue how to deal with it. Yang’s angry emo phase had lasted approximately 2 weeks and she’d been with Tai for it while Summer and Raven were on a trip. She reached over and ruffled her younger daughter’s hair. “C’mon bug, the sooner we get it over with the sooner I can take you to get ice cream and we can pretend we just took a while shopping.” 

Ruby considered it, tilting her head to the side and chewing on her lip. “The ice cream shop by Uncle Qrow’s?” she asked. Raven nodded.

“Of course. We can even stop in and say hi to your uncles, if you’d like.” Ruby smiled softly and nodded. Raven quietly thanked whatever God or Power That Be for letting that go easily.

“Wait!” Ruby cried as Raven went to lock the car. She yanked the back door open and dove into the backseat. She came back with a dark red hoodie and tugged it over her head. Raven gave a surprised laugh.

“Is that  _ mine? _ ” she asked. Ruby grinned brightly at her. 

“Yep!” Raven knew the back had BRANWEN 13 in faded gold letters, while the front read “BEACON UNIVERSITY KENDO TEAM”. She threw an arm over Ruby’s shoulders and ruffled her hair again with her other hand.

“Alright, groceries and ice cream await!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the wip title for this is "our kids are pretty cute"


	4. Confession

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Summer finds out why Raven and Qrow are at Beacon and Raven confesses something big

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the wip title of this one is "insert fob church reference here"

“Summer,” Raven called to her desperately, “Summer, please, just let me explain!” She caught up to Summer and grabbed her wrist. Summer kept her face turned away, with her hood up there was no way for Raven to see her crying.

“What, Raven,” she snapped. Her voice was shaking. “How could you possibly explain this away? You- you- you _ lied _ to us, to _ me! _ You came here, to Beacon, to learn how to kill Huntsmen. And then you were just going to? What? Go back to your tribe?” Raven’s grip loosened on her wrist and Summer wrenched it away.

“I-” her voice cracked. “It’s not like that anymore, Summer,” she whispered.

“Oh, and what changed your mind?” Summer yelled as she spun to face her. Raven’s face had never looked so terrified in all of the years Summer had known her now. If this were any other moment, Summer might have considered this a victory. She was always trying to get Raven to show an expression besides annoyance or anger but now that she had it, there was no way for her to feel good about it. Summer took a step closer to Raven, crowding her up against a tree.

Raven took a heavy step back away from her. Summer’s hands fisted into her collar, tears welling up in her eyes again. “How could you lie to us like this, Rae? We trusted you, we cared about you! We taught you how kids inside the kingdoms play, we taught you about combat schools, and you were just- just- filing it away to tell everyone else later? Oh I bet you were all gonna have a great laugh about the stupid girl who trusted you blindly, huh?”

Raven’s eyes were screwed shut and her face was twisted up and away from Summer’s. Summer felt her anger flare again. She shook Raven.

“_ LOOK AT ME!” _she screamed. Raven’s eyes snapped open.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered. Summer found herself pulled into a bruising kiss. Raven pulled back and pressed their foreheads together, Summer’s hands still on her collar. “It’s different now, because of _ you, _Summer Rose. Because I’ve fallen for you,” she said. Something warm and wet hit Summer’s hands in drops and she realized that Raven was crying.

“Rae?” she said.

“How awful for you, right? The bandit who only even appeared in your life because she was learning how to kill you fell in love with you.” She tried to laugh but it turned into a sob halfway out of her mouth. She slid down the tree until she was sat in the mud, staring up at Summer. Summer crouched in front of her.

“Are you stupid?” she asked, scrubbing at her face. “The whole reason I was so mad was because I’m in love with you, too.” Raven stared at her with wide eyed and open-mouthed.

“Really?” she whispered. Summer laughed and nodded.

“Yes, really. Now kiss me again before we both start crying,” she said. Raven lunged forward and grabbed her hood to pull her back in.


	5. Beacon Ball

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's time for the Beacon Ball and Raven is feeling a little....jealous.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [I posted a comic to go with this!](https://ravenbranwyn.tumblr.com/post/187043533239/rose-bird-week-day-5-beacon-ball-i-got-a-little)

Raven leaned against a wall of the cafeteria and watched Summer as she laughed and chatted with other students. She felt jealousy swell in her chest, wishing Summer would pay attention to her instead of the Haven and Atlas students she was currently talking to. She crossed her arms and glared off to the side, because no matter how much she wanted Summer’s attention, she would never force Summer to give it to her. 

She noticed Qrow approach Summer in her peripherals and squashed down the hot anger that roared to life. If her brother wanted to dance with Summer, who was she to deny it? She wasn’t Summer’s girlfriend, simply her partner, her teammate. Her fingers dug harshly into her shoulder as tears stung her eyes.

“Raven?” Raven jumped and looked up. Summer was standing in front of her, one hand outstretched. Raven crossed her arms and leaned against the wall again. She watched as Summer’s mouth struggled not to smile. She gave a little bow. “May I have this dance?”

_ You can have every dance _ , Raven thought as her heart ached. Aloud all she said was, “Sure.” She took Summer’s hand and pulled her flush against her chest. She smirked down at her and spun them into the middle of the dance floor. Summer laughed and popped up onto her toes to lace her arms over Raven’s shoulders and bump their noses together. Raven felt her face burn and shook her hair to hide the blush that was surely visible even in the darkened cafeteria. Summer laughed again and moved one hand to Raven’s cheek instead, running her fingers through her hair.

Raven leaned into it and felt like everyone else had disappeared from the room, like only she and Summer were left to dance together.

“Dance with me?” Summer asked.

“‘Til the end,” Raven replied, pulling her closer.


	6. Meeting the Tribe

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Raven is thoroughly embarrassed by her predecessor when she and Qrow bring Summer and Tai home.

Raven took a deep breath and squeezed Summer’s hand. She felt Qrow’s hand settle on her shoulder, so she straightened her back and gestured widely to the tall fence in front of them. “Welcome,” she began, “to the Branwen Tribe camp!” Summer smiled softly at her in that strange way she had been ever since Raven confessed to her. Raven felt her cheeks start to burn and she cleared her throat and quickly turned away. She knocked on the gate, willing her blush away before anyone answered.

The gate creaked open and an unfamiliar little face peeked out. The child gasped and whipped around to call out, imperfect Western Mistrali spilling off their tongue in stilted syllables. Raven braced herself as thundering footsteps drew close. The gate was ripped open by a large, dark-haired man. He smiled broadly at Raven and Qrow in turn and threw his arms open.

“Little Raven and Qrow!” he boomed. Raven inclined her head and attempted to introduce Summer and Tai to him.

“Leader, this is-” he cut her off.

“Ah, the girl Raven writes about!” Raven like her blood was trying to boil her cheeks off. He reached out and shook Summer’s hand. “The little Rose, yes? Our Raven writes about you often. Though, her descriptions don’t do your beauty justice!” 

“Leader!” Raven yelped. She knew she was bright red, but wasn’t sure how much was embarrassment and how much was anger. The big man laughed and ruffled Raven’s hair, then turned to Tai. 

“And you are Qrow’s partner?” he asked. Tai nodded and smiled brightly.

“Is it too early to ask for embarrassing childhood stories?” he asked. The Branwen leader laughed and began guiding Summer and Tai into the camp. Qrow and Raven hung back and shared a long-suffering look.


	7. Kids/Pregnancy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Raven and Summer meet in a park

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I put a different spin on 'Kids' than I think the prompt was looking for

Raven wasn’t quite sure how she found herself crouching next to this crying girl, really. She and Qrow and their parent, Ozpin, were at the park when Raven got separated from them. She came across the crying girl and had been crouching with her for what felt like an eternity. The girl’s knees were scraped up, Raven realized. She looked around to see if her brother and Ozpin were nearby or if the girl’s parents were looking for her. 

“Hey,” she said finally, touching the girl’s shoulder. The girl sniffled and wiped at her face.

“Hi,” she said. Raven moved around in front of her and crouched again. 

“I’ll carry you until we find your Mom and Dad, okay?” Raven said. The girl moved slowly and climbed onto Raven’s back.

“I’m Summer Rose,” the girl said. Raven hesitated a little.

“Raven Branwen.” Summer hugged her shoulders.

“Thanks, Raven.” Raven hummed, a habit she picked up from Ozpin. She adjusted the way Summer’s legs were sitting before setting off towards the middle of the park. 

“Tell me when you see your parents, okay?” she said. She was scanning for Qrow and Ozpin but hadn’t spotted them yet and just hoped Summer would see her parents first. Or they would find a bathroom so Raven could help her at least clean up the scrapes on her knees. 

“Raven!” Ozpin shouted from a little bit away. They ran up with Qrow trailing behind them. He peeked out from behind Ozpin’s legs when he realized Raven wasn’t alone. “Oh!” Ozpin said. “And who is this?” they asked. Summer reached out a hand shyly.

“I’m Summer Rose,” she said. Raven adjusted her grip again.

“She’s hurt, I’m helping her find her parents,” she explained. Summer’s arms squeezed around her shoulders again. A new voice joined them.

“Sum!” Raven turned a little to see a blond boy come bounding up. He had a band-aid on his cheek and was missing a tooth.

“Tai-Tai!” Summer said. A few other kids ran up behind him. A girl with white hair that Raven recognized from the cafeteria at school, a girl with dark hair and yellow eyes that she definitely didn’t recognize, and a boy with dark hair that looked like he had hit his growth spurt earlier than most of the boys their age. The dark-haired girl yelped when she saw Summer’s knees. The white-haired girl covered her ears and gave her a baleful glare.

“Kali,  _ please _ ,” she hissed. The dark-haired girl -- Kali -- paid her no mind and instead dropped to the ground with a little backpack and started pulling out band-aids.

“Mind holding me for a minute longer?” Summer asked Raven. Raven shrugged, finding no real reason to argue. She held still while Kali placed the bandages over Summer’s knees. While that was happening, Raven idly noticed her parent talking to the biggest boy and pulling out their phone. Soon after a tall, dark-haired woman showed up. She introduced herself as Summer’s mother, Garnet, and took Summer from Raven’s back. She thanked Raven profusely, which Raven tried hard not to blush at, and took Summer and her friends home.

Raven turned when she felt Qrow tugging on her sleeve. She raised an eyebrow at him, something else she’d picked up from Ozpin, and waited for him to tell her what he had to say.

“I heard Nini talking to Miss Garnet. Apparently Summer is gonna be starting at our school soon,” he said. Raven thought about the cute girl maybe being in her class and blushed.

“Whatever,” she said. “Let’s go play on the swings.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> All the kids are like 9/10 years old in this


End file.
